The Years the Locusts Have Eaten: Liberia 1816-2004

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Synopsis

This book is a historical narrative of the formation of the Liberian state by the American Colonization Society (ACS), and its assiduous endeavor to repatriate all free African-Americans of the 19th century to their ancestral homeland in Africa. The key leaders of the ACS who espoused the colonization of African-Americans included: Presidents Monroe, Madison, Jefferson, Jackson; Chief Justice John Marshall, and Francis Scott Key. These men were not only slaveholders, they were also steadfast segregationists. Out of their creation emerged a failed state that was symbolic of the intolerable concept of forced colonization. During 180 years of its existence, Liberians never institutionalized any democratic institutions. Liberia remained drenched in a labyrinth of self-inflicted wounds brought on by authoritarian rule, ethnic hatred and intolerance, and complete disregard for the rule of law. The political psychosis rose to a sadistic level when a series of full-blown civil war and mayhem erupted, and claimed the lives of over ten percent of the population, dislocated three-quarters of the Liberian people to other countries, and wrecked the total infrastructure of the country. This is the epic struggle of the Liberia people to remain free.